1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector, and particularly to a stacked card connector having guiding and fastening means for facilitating the connection and retainment of the connector to a daughter board of a computer.
2. The Prior Art
Present laptop computers are often equipped with card connectors for receiving memory cards or I/O cards. One of three different interconnection means is commonly employed for connecting the card connector to the computer. The first type configures the connector to have conductive contacts formed at right angles for directly linking the connector to a mother board. The second kind of interconnection means utilizes a daughter board horizontally arranged with the contacts of the connector and mounted to the mother board by means of an intermediate board-to-board connector. Lastly, a daughter board can be orthogonally fixed between the connector and the mother board by receiving the contacts of the connector in holes defined through a surface thereof for soldering thereto and then being inserted in a socket mounted to the motherboard. The card connector of the present invention refers to this last type of interconnection means.
Related interconnection means have been disclosed in Taiwan Pat. Nos. 80207449, 81216447, 81217278, 82205600, 83107162, 83202199, and 83208140, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,810,203, 4,818,239, 4,878,856, 5,085,590, 5,149,276, 5,176,523, 5,286,207, 5,290,174, 5,324,204, and 5,334,046.
However, the prior art interconnection means has many drawbacks. First of all, alignment and insertion of the contacts of the connector into the holes defined through the daughter board are troublesome. In addition, no fastening means exists between the daughter board and the connector so that when the daughter board is fixed to the connector by performing a wave soldering procedure on the contacts inserted in the daughter board, the two elements will become slightly offset with respect to each other. This leads to defective soldering junctions which result in short or open circuits between adjacent contacts due to misalignment. Furthermore, to obtain better positioning of the contacts with the daughter board, several jig tools are required, thus, making assembly laborious and increasing manufacturing costs.
Hence, there is a need for a card connector with a guiding and fastening means to eliminate the above mentioned defects of current card connectors.